Creating shortcut for Access 2003 on several different desktops

P

Phyllis

I have been requested to add a shortcut to a specific Access 2003 database on
several different computers. Can you help me with this. Thanks
 
R

Ron2006

Hopefully the application has been split with the tables in one MDB
file and the application/forms/etc in a second MDB file.

If this is NOT true then you will need to search in this group and a
couple others on the subject of "Split" databases. The search will
give you a couple of solutions to creating and running split
databases.

If it is already split, hopefully the developer has supplied some type
of shortcut type of file to run the application. If that is not true,
then at a minimum you will need to copy the "Front End" part of the
application to the individual user's hard drive and then execute that
part of the application with a shortcut to that MDB file. Double
clicking on that mdb or making a shortcut to it will execute all of
the necessary files.

Basically it all comes down to: if multiple users need to run the same
application, then the application needs to be split and each user has
their own copy of the Front End (and they are sharing the single
version of the Back End (where the tables are). If this is not done,
it will usually come down to only ONE user can be in the application
at a time. (And NO changes can be made to the application as long as
one of those users is running the application.)

At our location, we created a BAT file that copies the most recent
version of the application to the root directory on the user's machine
and then executes that copy. Then each of the users has a shortcut to
that BAT file. In the search suggested above you will find some free
software that essentially does the same thing but only executes the
copy if the version on the network drive is newer than the version on
the harddrive and then all all cases it executes the mdb on the local
harddrive.

Ron
 
P

Phyllis

Currently there is only one table. No applications/forms/etc have been
created. Will this create a problem if the shortcut is placed on these
individual desktops?
 
R

Ron2006

If all it is is a single mdb file that contains ONLY tables then you
do NOT want to copy that mdb to the users desktop/hardrive.

Updating directly into a table is rarely appropriate and very strongly
discouraged.

My suggestion is:

1) create a brand new empty mdb file.
2) create linked tables in this mdb linking to each of the tables in
the original mdb.
3) Create a generic form in the forms area that links to each of the
tables. If there is a an autonumber field in any of the tables, be
sure to take that autonumber field off of the form that is created or
at a minimum lock the data for that field in the generic form.
4) Make sure the default view for each of the forms is datasheet
unless they like the formated view better.
5) create the bat file mentioned or copy this new mdb to each of the
users harddrive and create the shortcut to that.

Basically if you do not do that you are asking for problems when more
than one user tries to work with the tables at a time.

Ron
 
T

Tony Toews [MVP]

Phyllis said:
I have been requested to add a shortcut to a specific Access 2003 database on
several different computers. Can you help me with this.
Click to expand...

However you really want to put the FE on each machine or place in a
user specific directory on the server. This will help avoid some
weird error messages when users are changing the same forms record
source, filters and such as well as corruptions. It is also much
easier to implement a new version of the database with changed
queries, forms, reports and VBA code.

I specifically created the Auto FE Updater utility so that I could
make changes to the FE MDE as often as I wanted and be quite confident
that the next time someone went to run the app that it would pull in
the latest version. For more info on the errors or the Auto FE
Updater utility see the free Auto FE Updater utility at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm at my website to keep the
FE on each PC up to date.

This utility will also create the shortcuts in the Quick Launch
toolbar, Desktop or Start >> All Programs if desired.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
 
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